President Donald Trump destroyed the White House’s East Wing to create a massive ballroom that he claimed would improve the grounds — but by his own admission, building it has complicated his own security.
“The bunker emerged in the Trump administration's court fight against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is challenging the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom project in Washington,” PBS reported on Thursday. “A federal appeals court last week permitted the president to continue with construction of the project at the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished last fall.”
They added, “That ruling put on hold a lower-court judge's order blocking aboveground construction but exempted work to ensure the safety and security of the White House. The Republican administration's appeal cited materials that would be installed to make a "heavily fortified" facility, including adding bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility underneath the ballroom.”
The station noted that there have been historic occasions when occupants of the White House were rushed to the underground bunker. This includes Vice President Dick Cheney, who was taken there on Sept. 11, 2001 during the terrorist attacks and of Trump himself during the George Floyd protests.
Although a judge ruled at the end of March that Trump did not have the right to unilaterally tear down part of the White House, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon allowed underground work to continue because he was informed of secret security concerns that would exist if that aspect of construction was simply abandoned.
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has a hearing for June 5 to review the case,” PBS reported. “Taxpayer dollars will pay for the security aspects of the project, though Trump has said the ballroom costs will be covered by donations from wealthy people and corporations. He's said it's a long-overdue addition to the White House complex.”
Even as millions of Americans struggle with high prices and unemployment, Trump has focused more of his public statements on promoting his ballroom than on the bread-and-butter issues that matter most to voters.
“Trump has invoked the ballroom on about a third of the days this year, according to a Washington Post analysis of his public remarks and social media posts, a pace that rivals and even exceeds his mentions of some major policy priorities,” wrote Clara Ence Morse and Dan Diamond of The Washington Post. “He has mentioned the project on fewer days this year than topics such as tariffs and Iran but on about as many days as he has mentioned health insurance and ‘affordability.’”
They added Trump brought up the ballroom “significantly” more often than his TrumpRx website, “which his administration introduced to help Americans shop for cheaper prescription drugs.” It has even dominated his social media feeds.
“In April, for instance, the president has issued more posts about the ballroom on his Truth Social platform than about tariffs — Trump’s signature economic policy,” Morse and Diamond wrote. “On Thursday, the president took to Truth Social to complain about the federal judge who ordered a stop to the project until Trump receives congressional authorization, complain again about the judge, complain about the plaintiff, and then complain about the judge one more time — yielding nearly 800 words of invective, all told. Then, within minutes, Trump shared all four posts again.”
In fact, the White House’s 9,000-page book of public comments about the ballroom contained almost entirely negative feedback. It included "complete DISASTER,” an “eyesore,” an “abomination,” "NO GAUDY FAKE GOLD STUFF ALL OVER THE PLACE,” “no one wants to be in an adjunct building in a large crowd with lengthened security protocols” and “appalling.”